Dylan Coutu, age 8, uses his passion for quarter midget racing to help fight cancer.

It would be easy to forgive Dylan Coutu's second grade classmates if they think he's kidding when he says he has a driver's license. But he isn't. The 8-year-old Griswold Elementary School student has a purple license that certifies his eligibility to drive his quarter midget race car. He even had to pass a driver's test to earn it. "It wasn't fun, I'll tell you that," he says.

Dylan has been racing since kindergarten, but to hear his parents tell it, he was enamored of racing from infancy. "Pretty much from day one, he loved the sound of NASCAR on TV," said his father, Ron Coutu. When his family traveled to a car show in Hartford in 2011, 5-year-old Dylan got to sit in a race car. That sealed the deal.

"I tried it and I said, 'this is fun!'" said Dylan.

"We fell hook, line and sinker for this," said Ron. "We haven't missed a week of racing since." From late April through October, the family travels on weekends to Meriden's Silver City raceway so Dylan can compete for Red Line Motorsports with his peers in the junior division of quarter-midget racing. The small vehicles, powered by an engine similar to a lawnmower's, circle a 1/20th-mile race track that's similarly scaled down, with tight corners and an infield that's about the size of a residential driveway.

Erica Coutu, Dylan's mom, said she was hesitant at first to let her son compete. But, she explained, race regulations require a host of protective apparel and equipment, from roll bars and fireproof suits and gloves, to wrist restraints and a 5-point harness. "We take pride in kids not getting injured," she said.

"Everybody in the family has a role," said Ron. Parents essentially serve as "pit crew," checking the vehicles and safety equipment prior to racing and push-starting the racers. Kids must learn the rules and guidelines for speed and passing, he said. "They start off slow and eventually build up to where they do competitive classes," he said.

In junior division, kids Dylan's age and younger race in 15-lap heats and 20-lap races. The number of laps increases in senior division, which Dylan will be eligible for next year. Dylan's so eager to reach senior division that he insists he can't miss any races this season. He's aiming to follow in the footsteps of one of his role models, who started in quarter midget at Silver City but went on to much bigger things. "Joey Logano started out at our track. He won the Daytona 500 this year," he said.

In the meantime, Dylan is using his passion for racing to help support Racing 2 Cure, a charity established by the racing community. "It's helping people with cancer. We raise money," said Dylan. He and his parents were prompted to participate by the way cancer has touched their own family – his grandfather suffered from lymphoma, and he lost a grandmother and an adult mentor from the racing world to cancer.

Last weekend, Dylan brought his race car to a fund-raiser at Ruby Tuesday's at Lisbon Landing, signing autographs and letting kids try out the driver's seat. The restaurant also kicked in a percentage of the afternoon's checks toward the cause. Ron explained that Racing 2 Cure is focused less on funding research and more on "the daily stuff" - the immediate needs of families dealing with cancer, from travel expenses to bills to Christmas presents.